Aye Finance, a startup that specializes in micro-loans in India, has landed $10.3 million in new appropriation of a possess led LGT and existent investors SAIF Partners and Accion.

The two-year-old association offers financing to tiny businesses opposite India that would differently not seem on a radar of banks and normal financing institutions. Founders Sanjay Sharma and Vikram Jetley are former bankers who returned to India with a goal of starting a plan with “social impact.”

Sharma told TechCrunch in an talk that standard loans are 200,000-300,000 INR ($2,900-$4,400) in size, and are directed during businesses and business owners who aren’t means to lift collateral by unchanging channels. That doesn’t usually meant Aye Finance goes subsequent a turn of banks and loan firms, it also targets business that, he said, are subsequent a radar of e-commerce businesses like Flipkart, that offer floats to support micro-entrepreneurs creation a vital on their platform.

“How do we safeguard [a business owner] when they don’t have documents that classical financial companies are used to seeing, while they do not say taxation earnings or book?” Sharma pronounced of a challenge.

To tackle that challenge, Aye Finance operates a network of 31 tiny though staffed branches opposite seven states, primarily in a north of India, where impending business accommodate a deputy who completes their financial information regulating a digital height that syncs to a cloud. Because these are outlier cases, Aye Finance specializes in what Sharm calls “industry clusters” — specific forms of attention — which, he said, allows them to beget accurate metrics to consider a business. The box of shoe manufacturing, that competence be a series of units constructed per day per employee, or other financial information outward of what banks customarily seek.

“We know dynamics of each industry, and use 8 indicators to do so,” he explained.

The association uses a internal and offline proceed to anticipating a leads, given many are not savvy to already use a internet.

“Clusters tend to be densely recognition around sold geographies,” Sharma added. “There might be 15,000 prospects in a 2km block area — we usually need usually 1,000 (signed-up) business to make a branch.”

The association pronounced it is now during mangle even on a month-to-month basis, though it skeleton to turn altogether essential before a finish of 2017. Sharma is also targeting a subsequent turn of appropriation in 18-24 months that would assistance a association pierce into opposite kinds of financing products for businesses.

“We [hope to] offer them financial services with links to their cluster. For example, for some, there are vast buyers in Delhi that they can be introduced to, we can make marketplace for them, for offer advisory and marketplace assembly services,” Sharma explained.